Seep found near BP's busted oil well, says federal official

View full size(AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)Vessels assisting in the capping of the Deepwater Horizon oil wellhead are seen on the Gulf of Mexico near the coast of Louisiana Sunday, July 18, 2010. A federal official said Sunday a seep had been found near the well.

NEW ORLEANS -- A federal official said
Sunday that scientists are concerned about a seep and possible methane
seen near BP's busted oil well in the Gulf of Mexico.

Both could
be signs there are leaks in the well that's been capped off for three
days.

The official spoke to The Associated Press on condition of
anonymity Sunday because an announcement about the next steps had not
yet been made.

The official is familiar with the spill oversight
but would not clarify what is seeping near the well. The official said
BP is not complying with the government's demand for more monitoring. BP
spokesman Mark Salt declined to comment on the allegation, but said "we
continue to work very closely with all government scientists on this."

Retired
Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen will make the final decisions on the next
step. The official said Allen would issue a letter to BP shortly
allowing testing to proceed in 24-hour increments, but also requiring
more analysis of the seep and the possible observation of methane over
the well.

If Allen doesn't get the response he wants, the testing
could stop, the official said.

The custom-built cap that finally
cut off the oil flowing from BP's broken well three days ago was holding
steady Sunday.

A BP official said the company hoped to leave the
cap in place until crews can permanently kill the leak.

That
differs from the plan the federal government laid out a day earlier, in
which millions more gallons of oil could be released before the cap is
connected to tankers at the surface and oil is sent to be collected
through a mile of pipes.

Federal officials wary of making the well
unstable have said that plan would relieve pressure on the cap and may
be the safer option, but it would mean three days of oil flowing into
the Gulf before the collection begins.

(This report was written by Colleen Long and Harry R. Weber of The Associated Press.)